What does "this" represent ?

Question

Hello NGs,
I found this applet in one of the tutorials:
"import java.awt.Point;
class NamedPoint extends Point {
String name;
NamedPoint(int x, int y, String name) {
super(x,y);
this.name=name;
public static void main(String[] arguments) {
NamedPoint np = new NamedPoint(5,5,"SmallPoint");
System.out.println("x is "+np.x);
System.out.println("y is "+np.y);
System.out.println("Name is "+np.name);
Now, this works fine. But I was trying to understand how the "this."instruction in line 6 works.
If I try replacing it by "NamedPoint.name" or "NamedPoint(x,y,name).name" or anything I could think of, I get an error message from the compiler saying that he cannot find the variable.
The question ist: what EXACTELY does "this" represent in this case ? By what could I replace it to achieve the same result ?
Thanks.

Answer 1

In this case u need this to tell the compiler what you are talking about, cause you've got a field name in the class-definition and an parameter name in the constructor. so usually it's enough if u write:
name=...; But as we have a name conflict here, you have to qualify the field name with this. In general this is the "self-reference" and super is the "reference to the super-class". You can't write NamedPoint.name here cause name isn't a static field. you could make it static though, by replacing the name declaration with this: static String name;